I am preparing my tank for a bimac and I am wondering if I should use a heater to maintain my tank at a constant temperature, or if I should let the temperature fluxuate? My reasoning for no heater would be that it would allow the tank to be at the lowest temperature possible, I just don't know if this outweighs the stress of having temperatures change during the day. Robert
Hi rcl, This would depend on what range you're talking about. Yes, bimacs can tolerate some fluctuation because they live near the shore and experience temperature changes in the ocean water. Usually people need a chiller, not a heater, but it depends where you live and what your house temperature is. So what high and low temp are you talking about, and how much fluctuation? During summer I had to keep the air conditioner set lower than we normally preferred to keep in good temperature range for my bimac (70 degrees during the day, 68 at night) and I used a fan on the sump. This brought down the tank temperature to 72-73 degrees. I still had to use the fan during fall and winter. Nancy
I'd say during the day perhaps 76 or 78 at the high point? and then maybe 72 at the lower point? I do not run a sump so chilling is not an option unless I buy a chiller (which I am not going to unfortunately). I understand that as long as its under 78 it is not damaging to them, it just speeds up their metabolism.. so should I just let the temperature flux then? That sounds like what you do unless I am mistaken Robert
Hi Robert, You certainly don't need a heater. You might try a small inexpensive fan blowing on the sump, if you have a sump. It would cool the tank down. Yes, the higher temperatures speed up the metabolism and supposedly shorten the lifespan. It would be better if you could keep your tank temperature under 75 degrees most of the time. A bimac is not a tropical octopus - they live in slighly cooler waters and are found off the coast of southern California and Mexico. So bimacs can tolerate 78 degrees, but it's not desirable for very long. Nancy
ooops probably should've read the message before I voted!! no heaters here! but we don't have bimacs! we have cold water spp who would hate the heat J
My tank is very basic, I simply have a hang-on-tank filter, and will soon have a prizm hang on tank protein skimmer (my gf has one for sale, and I am giving my friend first dibs on it since he is new to the hobby; so I will be getting either that one or a new one if he wants it). It is a 29g and I felt that running a sump was simply more trouble than it was worth. I just set one up on my 60g and it was just more time/effort/money than I felt was neccessary here. Who knows, maybe I'm dead wrong :P :P As an update on this, I honestly don't know what the heck I have been thinking about all of this. I have no trouble with heating problems as I have suggested. This tank has a hang-on-tank filter which generates about No heat, but all of the heat is coming from the 4 medium-large powerheads I have in this tank cycling the LR. There should be no reason for the tank to be much higher than ambient temperature here, which is around 72... so I guess this whole post is kind of silly. It has definitely made me consider ways to try to reduce temperature using external fans though. Will let you guys know what my tank temperature ends up being in a couple weeks when I get things more stablized and ready for the octo 8) Robert
